


The Bite is a Gift

by FreakHour



Series: Sweet as Hale [20]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family AU, Gen, Hale Family Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakHour/pseuds/FreakHour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sweet as Hale was begun on tumblr (http://halefamilyfic.tumblr.com) because eeames wanted some Hale Family stuff. I thought. Why not? This all happened. I admit my take on everything is definitely not s3 compliant and... It just never will be. These are pre-fire Hales. I treat it very much like if the Cosbys were Werewolves. They are a fun family how I write them. The Dad is Alec, please imagine him played by Joe Flanigan. (you should totally go to the tumblr an enjoy the imageset header eeames made it is A+++) Everyone else you know except their baby Eric. In the Hale Family only Alec and Eric are human. I hope you enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bite is a Gift

Alec has no idea how it even comes up. He’s in his workshop with Derek doing guy stuff that includes restoring a plaster inset for the town hall job, Talia and the girls are off buying clothes or shoes or preparing to liberate some country or whatever it is girls do when they can get away and get down to some serious girl stuff. All he knows is one moment he’s showing Derek how to make a mould off a damaged piece and the next… Well…

Derek kept staring at the bandage on his Dad’s arm. It was a lingering injury from the omega that had cornered Cora and he out in the woods. Everything else was hidden but that bandage stuck out in plain sight all the time. Derek hated it. He hated how his Dad just laughed it off. He hated when he tried to hug his Dad he still winced. He hated that his Dad had almost died.

“You need to ask Mom for the bite.” Derek said softly, interrupting his Dad’s explanation of epoxy and sculpting clay.

“What?” Alec smirked and laughed a little puzzled.

“It’s not funny, Dad! You need it! Why haven’t you asked Mom for the bite!? Then we wouldn’t have to worry about you all the time!” Derek half growled out. He scowled up at his Dad who laughed and shook his head. “I don’t need it.“

"Yes you do!!! You’re always laughing like an idiot and it’s not funny!! You’re too weak! You need the bite so we don’t leave you behind!” Derek half shouted.

Alec gripped the edge of his workbench and swallowed down the queasy feeling of hurt in his gut. “You don’t mean that.“

"Dad. If you get the bite…”

“I’ll what Derek? Be a father you’re proud of? Be the Dad you wish you had? I’m sorry but I’m not taking the bite from your Mom, I’m not! I’m fine how I am! I’m happy as I am! Even if all I am is someone you can leave behind because I’m less than the rest of you.” Alec snapped, pulling off his gloves and tossing them down on the bench.

“Dad… I just want you to be like us.” Derek whispered.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Derek. I am! In the only ways that really matter.” Alec headed up into the house, furious and hurt. Derek folded his arms and sat where he was, muttering. “Stupid! It’s a gift to be a werewolf!! He should jump at the chance! Then we could always be together!“

Talia came home to her usually inseparable men folk sitting at different ends of the house. Talia first tried to get what happened out of Alec but he was uncharacteristically close mouthed. He was also uncharacteristically unhappy, so much so she could smell his unshed tears and almost taste his grief when she finally enticed him to kiss her. He was hurting and she’d never seen him unable to laugh something off. She left him sitting on the floor beside their bed and almost fell over Laura as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

"Mom, Derek growled at me!” Laura complained, tugging at Cora’s hand.

“He what?”

“I was tellin’ him guy time sucks compared to girl time and he growled at me!” Laura insists.

“That wasn’t nice Laur.” Talia smiled and stroked her daughters’ hair. “I’ll talk to him.“

"Is Dad ok? You never close your door…?” Laura curiously inquired.

“He’s not feeling so good right now. Best to keep it down while he rests.” Talia stroked Laura’s hair, “Take Cora to your room and play? I’ll talk to your brother.”

“OOOooOOOooOOo Derek’s in Troooouuuuuublllllllleeeeeeeeee!!!!” Laura grinned and hefted her little sister, heading for her room as Talia went downstairs to hunt up Derek.

Talia found him curled up behind a chair in the library. She sat and didn’t even look at him, she didn’t talk for a long time. Derek hunkered against the back of the chair, just waiting to get chewed out. “So.” Talia finally murmurs, her voice soft but it seems so loud to Derek. “What happened with you and Dad? And if I was you, I wouldn’t say nothing.”

Derek squirmed. “I… I told him…. I told him he had to ask you for the bite.” His mother is so quiet for so long he thought she had left. He’s about to stand up and check when Talia clears her throat.

“Your Dad doesn’t need the bite Derek.”

“But he gets hurt! And sick! And he almost died!!!” Derek sobbed, hugging his knees harder.

“Even werewolves die, baby.” Talia says softly. “Maybe we go down a little harder, but we die. Do you hate your Dad because human?”

“NO!” Derek’s claws dug into the wood floor.

“You think he’s weak and silly?”

“NO!” Derek sobbed, “Dad’s the best. I just… I don’t want to lose him…” Derek felt hot tears spill down his cheeks, rocking slightly and feeling angry and anxious.

Talia smiled softly, “Come here baby. Come on. Don’t make me get alpha on you.”

Derek crawled out from behind the chair, climbing into her lap and letting his mother hug and cuddle him even though he didn’t deserve it. “I just want…. I need….”

Talia rubbed his back and sighed, “It’s scary. I know. But I love your Dad just the way he is. He’s so brave, and funny, and kind…”

“I know.” Derek hiccups, “I’m so scared…”

Talia hugs him tight, “You really hurt your Dad’s feelings you know.”

Derek nodded jerkily; he knew, but he was ok if it meant his Dad would be safe. He could be the bad guy if his Dad would just be safe…

“When I told your Dad what I was, do you know what he did?” Talia murmured into Derek’s hair.

“Freak out?”

Talia grinned, “No he laughed and said he was a Jedi. So I shifted in front of him.”

“And then he freaked out.”

“Nope. He laughed again, in delight. I thought he had gone into shock. And he was surprised… But he held my face and kissed me and he said, ‘Well I always wanted to be Han Solo. Only I would get a combo out of Princess Leia and Chewbacca!’”

“He did not!” Derek covered his mouth to not laugh, he didn’t smother it very well.

“Oh he did.” Talia chuckled, “But that was your Dad. He just took it in stride. I had been so scared he would run. Your Grandpa… He was not very nice about it though. Right up to the day he died he kept trying to get your Dad to take the bite. He was adamant. He felt your Dad would end up like my Mom. That he’d die in some silly way we’d survive and that like… Like him I’d feel so lost, that you kids would be lost… Your Dad laughed it off each time. He said whatever we are doesn’t matter because we’re family. Like changing his last name didn’t matter, he could be called platypus and he’d fit in. So he would fit in as a human because his love was werewolf strong.”

Derek snorted, smiling and rubbing his eyes. “That sounds exactly like Dad.”

“Of course it does… So… When you…. told him he needed the bite…”

Derek already felt terrible but now he felt so awful, like a huge black hole was in his heart. “I didn’t mean…”

Talia makes him look at her, “I think you need to apologize to your Dad and make up. I was scared for him too when he took on an Omega like that. We did nearly lose him. But I need you to understand some things. He did that for you. Knowing he would most probably die. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to live. He wants to be here with us more than anything else in the world. Also, when your Dad laughs at things, it is how he deals with it. I use to get so upset with him because he would laugh at the worst times. But it is how he deals with things. Ok? You know that.” She kisses Derek’s head, gently wiping away his tears. “You really did a number on him. He’s pretty broken up there.”

Derek looked pretty broken hearing that. Talia fought a smile at how much Derek and Alec are alike. Derek just lacked the thick protective layer of silliness and laughter that his Dad has. “Go on, make nice. Or no dessert.”

Derek slipped off his Mom’s lap and headed upstairs, the closed door on his parent’s bedroom was very forbidding as he lightly pushed it open and crept inside to climb on the bed where his Dad was laying on his side sleeping.

“Dad?” Derek whispered. “Daaaad?” He said a little louder right in Alec’s ear, poking his cheek gently, “I’m sorry Dad… I didn’t mean… I was just… I’m scared. I was scared you got hurt. I hate it. I hate when you hurt or get sick. I don’t want…” Derek clenched his teeth hard, his stomach knotting up. He could barely breathe in a soft shuddering breath when his Dad raised his arm up, an open invitation to snuggle.

Derek crawled over his Dad’s side and burrowed into his chest, hugging his Dad as tight as he could. Alec wrapped his arm about his son and sighed.

“I love you Derek, I’m sorry I disappoint you.” Alec remarked softly.

“You don’t!!” Derek protested. “I’m.. I just… I’m stupid!”

“You are not.” Alec snapped vehemently.

Derek felt the warmth surge in his whole body, tears welling up again and making him feel like a huge crybaby. “I just want you to always be ok. I don’t want you to die ever. Not ever! And you’re so… great. And I thought…”

Alec sighs and hugs him tight, “You thought if I had the bite I would be able to bare-handed take on werewolves.”

Derek nodded and sighed.

Alec laughed softly. “Do you know most werewolves are killed by humans than by their own kind? Humans are as deadly as they come. And really - I can do things you guys can’t. And I get to watch the house while you guys run around under the full moon.”

“Don’t you wanna come?!” Derek asked, anguish surging in his heart.

“Not really no. I used to go with your Mom. I mean even you don’t have to go. None of you do. Your Grandpa used to love running around the whole night so your Mom and Uncle Pete do too. But if you wanted to hang out here, you could. Or you can run around. There’s not a full moon law kiddo.”

Derek absorbed that, looking up as Alec continued. “And really… Even if I was a werewolf that Omega could have killed me. He almost killed you and your sister - remember? And I could be made of wet paper and I would still put myself between you and danger, Derek.”

Derek lay there and hugged him tight. “….I like that you’re human Dad.”

 

“Me too.”

“I don’t know if I could handle school like I do if I wasn’t used to you.” Derek pressed his face against his Dad and sighed. “I’m sorry…”

“I’m sorry I scared you, Derek. I’ll be better prepared next time.”

“Maybe you need a sword.” Derek mumbles and grins.

“That’d be cool. I might cut off my own foot though.” Alec chuckled softly.

“As long as you cut off bad werewolves’ heads…”

“I need my foot for that…”

  
Talia checked on them after an hour, finding them asleep cuddled up on the bed. She joined them and when Derek woke up a few hours later, it was with his whole family piled on the bed; Mom, Dad, Laura, and Cora. Safe and sound.


End file.
